I've worked on a lot of things over the years. Made investments, sat on boards, and ran companies. The one commonality in the success of all of these is how well the team members get along. Today's video is a recent Keynote that I gave for GoPuff employees in Philly! I share my two cents on the importance of being close to the customer emphasizing that whoever is the closest to the customer wins. I also share some business and marketing strategies to win in 2024. Hope you enjoy this one!
Timestamps:
0:00 - 2:30 Intro
2:30 - 5:03 8% of the year is done
5:03 - 9:40 How Gary started his career
9:40 - 11:57 Whoever is the closest to the customer wins
11:57 - 20:00 Patience and long term thinking in business
20:00 - 22:40 The importance of networking
22:40 - 33:00 The best marketing strategy ever: Care
33:00 - 36:32 The only common thread that makes a business win
36:32 - 38:16 Don't be football Gary
Thanks for watching!
Join My Discord!: http://www.garyvee.com/discord
Check out another series on my channel:
Gary Vaynerchuk Keynote Speeches: http://www.garyvee.com/keynotespeeches
Gary Vaynerchuk's thoughts on NFTs, Web3, cryptocurrencies and more: http://www.garyvee.com/web3nfts
Life, Business, and Career Advice l Gary Vaynerchuk Original Films: http://www.garyvee.com/gvoriginals
How to Make Money at Garage Sales l TrashTalk: http://www.garyvee.com/trashtalks
Inside the Life of a $300M+ Company's CEO l DailyVee: http://www.garyvee.com/dailyvees
Gary Vaynerchuk is a serial entrepreneur and serves as the Chairman of VaynerX, the CEO of VaynerMedia, and the Creator & CEO of VeeFriends. Gary is considered one of the leading global minds on what’s next in culture, relevance, and the internet. Known as “GaryVee,” he is described as one of the most forward thinkers in business – he acutely recognizes trends and patterns early to help others understand how these shifts impact markets and consumer behavior. Whether it’s emerging artists, esports, NFT investing, or digital communications, Gary understands how to bring brand relevance to the forefront. He is a prolific angel investor with early investments in companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Venmo, Snapchat, Coinbase and Uber.
Gary is an entrepreneur at heart – he builds businesses. Today, he helps Fortune 1000 brands leverage consumer attention through his full-service advertising agency, VaynerMedia, which has offices in New York, Los Angeles, London, Mexico City, and Singapore. VaynerMedia is part of the VaynerX holding company, including Eva Nosidam Productions, Vayner3, Gallery Media Group, The Sasha Group, VaynerSpeakers, and VaynerCommerce. Gary is also the Co-Founder of VaynerSports, Resy, and Empathy Wines. Gary guided both Resy and Empathy to successful exits – which were sold respectively to American Express and Constellation Brands. He’s also a Board Member at Candy Digital, Co-Founder of VCR Group, Co-Founder of ArtOfficial, Co-Founder of VaynerWATT, and Creator & CEO of VeeFriends. In addition, Gary was recently named to the Fortune list of the Top 50 Influential people in the NFT industry.
In addition to running multiple businesses, Gary documents his life daily as a CEO through his social media channels, which have more than 44 million followers and garnish over 173 million monthly impressions/views across all platforms. His podcast, “The GaryVee Audio Experience,” ranks among the top podcasts globally. He is a five-time New York Times Bestselling Author and one of the most highly sought-after public speakers.
Gary serves on the board of MikMak, Bojangles Restaurants, and Pencils of Promise. He is also a longtime Well Member of Charity:Water.
Timestamps:
0:00 - 2:30 Intro
2:30 - 5:03 8% of the year is done
5:03 - 9:40 How Gary started his career
9:40 - 11:57 Whoever is the closest to the customer wins
11:57 - 20:00 Patience and long term thinking in business
20:00 - 22:40 The importance of networking
22:40 - 33:00 The best marketing strategy ever: Care
33:00 - 36:32 The only common thread that makes a business win
36:32 - 38:16 Don't be football Gary
Thanks for watching!
Join My Discord!: http://www.garyvee.com/discord
Check out another series on my channel:
Gary Vaynerchuk Keynote Speeches: http://www.garyvee.com/keynotespeeches
Gary Vaynerchuk's thoughts on NFTs, Web3, cryptocurrencies and more: http://www.garyvee.com/web3nfts
Life, Business, and Career Advice l Gary Vaynerchuk Original Films: http://www.garyvee.com/gvoriginals
How to Make Money at Garage Sales l TrashTalk: http://www.garyvee.com/trashtalks
Inside the Life of a $300M+ Company's CEO l DailyVee: http://www.garyvee.com/dailyvees
Gary Vaynerchuk is a serial entrepreneur and serves as the Chairman of VaynerX, the CEO of VaynerMedia, and the Creator & CEO of VeeFriends. Gary is considered one of the leading global minds on what’s next in culture, relevance, and the internet. Known as “GaryVee,” he is described as one of the most forward thinkers in business – he acutely recognizes trends and patterns early to help others understand how these shifts impact markets and consumer behavior. Whether it’s emerging artists, esports, NFT investing, or digital communications, Gary understands how to bring brand relevance to the forefront. He is a prolific angel investor with early investments in companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Venmo, Snapchat, Coinbase and Uber.
Gary is an entrepreneur at heart – he builds businesses. Today, he helps Fortune 1000 brands leverage consumer attention through his full-service advertising agency, VaynerMedia, which has offices in New York, Los Angeles, London, Mexico City, and Singapore. VaynerMedia is part of the VaynerX holding company, including Eva Nosidam Productions, Vayner3, Gallery Media Group, The Sasha Group, VaynerSpeakers, and VaynerCommerce. Gary is also the Co-Founder of VaynerSports, Resy, and Empathy Wines. Gary guided both Resy and Empathy to successful exits – which were sold respectively to American Express and Constellation Brands. He’s also a Board Member at Candy Digital, Co-Founder of VCR Group, Co-Founder of ArtOfficial, Co-Founder of VaynerWATT, and Creator & CEO of VeeFriends. In addition, Gary was recently named to the Fortune list of the Top 50 Influential people in the NFT industry.
In addition to running multiple businesses, Gary documents his life daily as a CEO through his social media channels, which have more than 44 million followers and garnish over 173 million monthly impressions/views across all platforms. His podcast, “The GaryVee Audio Experience,” ranks among the top podcasts globally. He is a five-time New York Times Bestselling Author and one of the most highly sought-after public speakers.
Gary serves on the board of MikMak, Bojangles Restaurants, and Pencils of Promise. He is also a longtime Well Member of Charity:Water.
The only common thread of the Investments the boards I sit on the only Common Thread There's a million variables of what makes somebody win. Sometimes the COO she or he is just too talented and they will it to success. other times there's some random outside factors people get caught at time. There's things, but the only Common Thread that I see in the world of making something win is attention is the number one asset.
I'm just extremely excited to be here because I've been very fortunate in my career to be able to speak on a lot of stages. But as you can imagine, some stages are just a little more authentic to you than others. Given how my career has played out the founders, the alcohol, business marketing like Innovation early investor in Uber Like there's just so many things when I think about this incredible company. you know when I go and speak at like the national Dairy Association it's a it's not as much on the head of what this is and for me, there's just an enormous amount of admiration I have for this org.
So thank you so much for having me. and more importantly, what I get excited about is as someone who has been an entrepreneur his whole life and who's been an investor, especially in a lot of companies that look the profile of this company, you're always curious which organizations have that stomach to go through the different chapters right as again, Facebook and Twitter and Tumblr and other companies that I invested in early on. Those are the ones that I can speak to and it's like cool. There's plenty of companies that had incredible starts that I was involved in that you don't know.
like I don't think a lot of people here know what the yo Bongo is right and I think about that crossroads and I think it's an interesting time in general. and I also think that 2024 is going to be a really fun business year because I think we're settled into a true postco world and and I kind of like when it's real I think when there's too much money in the system like the VC decade of the past or when it's like too. you know, obviously when we print money and give it to everybody, people are just buying dumb, We just live through that. I just feel like we're in this really cool spot where it's real and I think real companies will emerge during real times and so for me I was pretty excited to say yes to this because I'm like oh, this is going to be a cool one to watch in five or seven years cuz I have some sneaky intuition of how this movie plays out.
So I just want to thank all of you for allowing me to be here. Look on the flight down here I posted an Instagram post and in the copy of like 8% of the Year is already gone. which like really shook me because as you know, the world has gotten soft and nobody really worked until the Tuesday after Martin Luther King this year and so it took about two weeks for this year to even get started and so like the fact that 8% of the Year is already done has me like kind of a little Shook and speaks to like the urgency and like the focus I'm trying to think about and I'm sure for all of you you're thinking that through. it's it's fun that you brought everyone together I think there's a lot of value in that I'm thinking a lot about the Serendipity and things of that nature. Also what's interesting for me is as someone who grew up from 14 to 34 years old working retail you know Monday through Saturday uh from 8:00 a.m. to 10: p.m. in a liquor store my whole life and then over the last 15 years have built a marketing Corporation of 2,000 people. It's also like really fun to in an audience that's mixed with remarkable corporate people but then also people in the trenches and as somebody who's lived 20 years in both categories.
if I just may for two seconds and this is with Incredible Love for everyone that's in corporate, can we take one second and clap it the up for the people that are actually in the F like maybe a little louder cuz they're actually you know. Oh and you know what, it was funny, it was funny cuz I was thinking about it I was like this company also represents how I've lived my last 40 years and I was like I was like all right I want to say this cuz I really feel it I wonder how it's going to land cuz I want to make sure all the corporate people know I'm not razing but I was I I actually said to myself I helicoptered over from New York real quick this morning to do this. In my mind I was like it'll be interesting how that reaction goes will be a really interesting indication to me of where the company is and so kudos to y'all I appreciate the fact that everybody in corporate understands the difference of people that are actually in the trenches every day. That reaction doubled down my confidence of where go Puffs going.
so thank you for that. So really that it's real talk it's Real Talk cuz when it snows you can't just be like Oh I'm going going to zoom you have to go in, it's real anyway I think that the thing that I'm most thinking about of like what's everyone in here thinking about like how are they thinking about this year I think perspective is a big focus of mine I think that how one sees life is how it is right? I've been very like weirded out by this whole half glass full half glass empty thing and that that really struck me too as I thought about this talk. I'm like just wonder how people are thinking about at Gopuff, right? Because for me again, just to put it, actually, how many people here know very little about me or have no idea who the I am? Just raise your hands real loud. All right, that hurts, let me actually.
I I thought that might be the case. so let me give you three seconds on this to set up what I was about to say. So real quick for everyone who just raised her hands. I Was born in the Soviet Union I immigrated to the Us.
We lived in Queens in a studio apartment with eight family members. It was ghetto, you know, immigrant like by the time I was eight I realized my parents aren't buying me toys or video games. so I was straight lemonade stands like when I was seven cuz we moved to Edison New Jersey when I was seven I Literally tricked or manipulated or convinced or motivated my six best friends to stand behind lemonade stands all day long and this group is way too young. But for the couple of you that are in your 40s or above I don't know if you remember. Back in the 80s we had something called Big Wheels they were like like that You remember that I used to ride my big wheels at like 5:00 p.m. during the summer. at the end of the day I would ride my big wheels to the six Lemonade Stand locations that I created and picked up my money like I was Tony Soprano and then I went into baseball cards and was making like two. I mean $2,000 a weekend selling baseball cards in 7th and eighth grade in 1985.
Like real talk when you have $10,000 in cash under your bed and you're 11 and you're not selling weed, you're a entrepreneur and then thank you. Then my dad ruined my life I was making all this money and then I turned 14. oldest son born in the Old Country My dad went from a stock boy making two bucks an hour in a liquor store to owning a small store in Springfield New Jersey and so Merchant son like I had to go work there and I went from making $1,000 $2,000 a weekend selling baseball cards in the malls in New Jersey being cool and living to making two bucks an hour working 14 hours a day in my dad's liquor store and I mean every day I don't know many I don't know how many of you have a Soviet father but it was like no, it was 14 hours a day, 7 hours in the basement bagging ice for the cooler and then coming up and stocking shelves and that like became the foundation of my career. Then I realized people collected wine and then in 1996 I launched one of the first e-commerce wine businesses in America America called Wine Library blew up my dad's business and that kind of is how my career took off.
My dad really didn't I again how many people here, immigrants like their parents were born in outside the US or you have raise your hands so you guys know, like my dad didn't pay me even though I worked from 22 to 34 in that liquor store. I built that business from a three to a $75 million business and I never got paid more than 80 $90,000 a year even though I did all that and so I had to go do my own thing but the foundation of that real brick-and mortar retail e-commerce grind. And then over the last 14 years I became an early investor on Facebook Twitter Uber That changed, obviously a lot for me, but I built a company called Vayner Media which is one of the largest marketing companies in the world. 2,000 employees globally.
What? what? What that does. Back to why I said I feel so connected to youall is I've just really lived both sides of the equation. especially. can I hear some noise for the folks in here? Yeah, some good. So I have a crazy good relationship with y'all though complicated meaning I really love you cuz I grew up like you but I also grew up in an era where BMA was such this iconic thing in California and when I was like 15 I used to like literally play like Genesis I'm like yo one day I'm going to put out of business so it's nice to be with all you. um you know of course then for all that noise like for you can't imagine like how much I think about what is the marketing going to be like? How do we get people in store? What are the trends? you know? it's crazy to watch how people have different Trends in drinking alcohol for example, if you know anything about wine, how many people here have had Ros wine? Make some noise I Worked in my dad's liquor store from 1990 pretty much every when I was a kid in school every weekend and summer vacation and then the day I graduated literally I drove from Boston and in the middle of the day I got there at 3:30 on that day and literally worked until 7 like it was no time down. So basically from 1990 to 2015 I worked in a liquor store my whole life. When I tell you we would sell from 1990 to 2005, we would sell four cases of Ros a year.
A year now, we sell 100 cases of Ros a week in the winter, not even in the summer. As you all know, that consumer shift is the most interesting I Grew up hearing War stories that people used to drink whiskey in Bourbon because in my era nobody did. It was all vodka and then became tequila right? And people like the old liquor salesman would be like no, no, no, like 25 old women used to drink Brown Goods I'm like you're crazy is that serious and then obviously over the last 10 years that has come back Consumer Trends are incredibly interesting. It's one of the most fascinating things and I think it plays out in the things you sell both on the liquor side and on the snack side.
I Think it's going to be really interesting because what's amazing about your organization from my perspective is you're close to the customer, You have the data, you get to see it. That's going to end up playing out to be a very big deal and whoever's closest to the customer wins. There is nothing else like to me. All of My Success in my career has been customer, my employees and then me and I give my dad a lot of credit for always caring about the store more than his children.
I've gotone to therapy for it. but I respect the out of it because I understand it and I think again, that's going to be an interesting ride to watch. look I think the biggest things that I'm thinking through is one one thing that I asked Dan actually in the Green Room like talk to me about the you know, like the stock options, things that it's like owners and I'm like that's super interesting because I think that gets it really motivating really fast right? Like back to like people in the trenches real quick, not like want to just want to make make sure that people understand like the upside of that game think when things are on paper like I it's been uh I'll tell you the story that most hit me when I understood the stock option play I was like Facebook was obviously my biggest win in my career right? and last night ironically going through social I got home late around midnight and I saw that the stock market had a big day I I tend to look at my portfolio like one like I don't know once every three months but I just happened to see like oh Dow Jones went off I'm let me look and I saw that Facebook was at $400 a share and immediately I got like the worst Pit in my stomach. not for me from the day I invested in Facebook four years before it's IP po to this morning I've never sold a share because I believed in the founder right? Obviously I'm very aware of what people think about Zuck and the way the media has played it out. but as the guy driving it I always told my whole family that the day he's out is the day I share sell but until he's out I hold forever. The reason I'm bringing it up is what I'm most fascinated about 2024. What: I'm most fascinated about every employee in here at this moment in in the history of goat. Puff's company as a complete outside Observer who watches the game is I'm fascinated by people's lack of patience.
The reason I bring up this Facebook story to you this morning is because I was early at Facebook because I made a video in 20076 that said Facebook should be worried about this new app called Twitter and it went viral inside of Facebook and I got called to go give a speech. Check this out the entire company of Facebook at the time when I gave my talk of why Twitter was going to be a thing was half the size of this audience. right now it was early I didn't even know Zux was in the audience. Back to how like weird and different he is, he was in the way back and I did my Spiel and in 2006 I said social media is going to win because it's human behavior.
That's it. Like the reason everybody wears the hat and the clothes they wear is to communicate to others. The reason we buy fancy cars is to communicate to others. Almost everything we do as humans is to communicate to others, obviously with our mouths and the way we roll, but with subtle that you don't even realize.
every photo you ever posted on social is subconsciously something you're trying to say. Position yourself front at worst or communicate Your Truth at best and so that's how it is and so I understood that. Anyway, that struck a chord. We hit it off.
We had dinner and I invested in Facebook very quickly after that and I mean all of my savings I bet the farm. The part about patience that I want to talk about in 2024 is about what happened next. Three years later, it went public over those three years before it went public I got to know a bunch of the top 100 exacts when the stock came out. Some of you might remember this because you were youngsters or you know it was a big moment. It opened at about $40 a share 42. it went down to 19 pretty quickly. Most of the friends that I made in those three years that were top 300 400 first 500 employees of Facebook sold somewhere between 25 and 19. they made a lot of M the ones I knew were there super early and very SAR they made a lot like nope this story is not to cry for those.
What's interesting is seeing them over the last 10 years. What's interesting for me is someone who got in for much less much later, the fact that I'm going to end up making more money on Facebook than a lot of those people with me and it was just one big game of lack of patience. and so I think what I'm most focused about in 2024 personally is thinking about that. How much of my decision making is based on tomorrow and how much is it for a year from now? You know what? I Love about retail? What I Love about retail is the signature story that is still told in my dad's liquor story even though I haven't been there dayto day for a decade is a story of December 18th in our store when I was the most important salesman on the floor and it was snowing and we had just done the internet thing for the last four or five years and we got a phone call from a woman in Bergen County New Jersey who was not yelling at us.
she was like when I got on the phone she sounded like Yoda she was like a thousand but she was complaining that it was important for her to get and this is a good one especially for the BevMo crowd. Her Behringer White Zendel Ros used to be sweet for all of you that don't know in America her Binger White zendel had not been delivered and it was a whole Todo and her son called and says you don't understand the FedEx that got delivered Anyway, Punchline is this it in one of our busiest days of the year off of me learning the this while I was on the floor from the internet Department I ran downstairs to the warehouse, grabbed a 15 pack of Baringer White Zadel, threw it into my car and drove to Bergen County and delivered it personing and drove back and was off the floor for about 2 or 3 hours. During that time many Top Dog customers came in only willing to work with me, ready to spend five 10 $15,000 on their collection and left. When I got back the core crew was like what the what I knew then and I did many things like this this is the one I just get to tell on stage what I knew then was actions have to set the tone for a culture.
What I knew was I was going to take a l in the short term on that day but I felt that it would be something that everybody in the crew especially because I knew I was looking to build long term and the 20 people people that were around me I was hoping and played out would be there for 10 15 years I needed something to point to for them to understand what our DNA was both on the corporate side and in the trenches here. I think we think too short term. The reason I tell that story is with the hope that one person decides like that makes sense. when I face something tomorrow, do I think about it from the shortterm reality of it or do I think about it as is this an opportunity to set the tone for what we're trying to do I think that kind of mentality of patience and brand building and culture building is everything you know to me. Uh, for example this event with this event when when I was asked to do it back in the winter I was so pumped that you were all going to be together I'm ever just thinking like yes, that's exactly right and I'm a businessman and I paying attention. so I'm aware of what's macro going on with gopuff and they're trying to be strategic about what they spend their money on and not and I'm like good for them to understand this like for example, what he just did was phenomenal I hope I Dro three or four things that make you think about something and maybe do something. This will be a good day of like content I'm sure, but everything that happens on this stage today is compared to if you take advantage of all the downtime all those minutes in between lunch break. I don't know what the you you doing lunch, you're lunch I Don't eat lunch I Think it's a complete waste of time.
retail. That's what the teaches here. So when you're at lunch today, if you can, do me one favor. What will normally happen in this environment is you're going to sit with your homies.
the people you're probably sitting with right now. The only thing that matters about like this is that the people in here who have the ability because they have enough extrovert, enough confidence, enough self-esteem please challenge yourself to go and say what's up to somebody you don't recognize, Go sit with somebody you don't know that interconnected tissue is everything. That is the only way corporations, teams companies win. So I Highly ask the people in here who have it in them to go and do that to set the tone during the down periods of this event because that is disproportionately why you should be here.
Can I get a little noise for the people that feel they can do that? look I think I think that there's so much opportunity in front. but I want to talk about something else that's a little bit on what I've been talking about and I'm going to frame it up for all of you as another thing to contemplate and again, I'll be honest with you when I do these kind of talks: I'm little I'm more about the humans than I am about the logo like I like the GOP puff guys I like Dan a lot. Uh, you know I'm I'm a fan from afar of the business. but what I'm about to talk about I think is essential for all of you for your career within or after when you're not here or whatever plays out for all of you. What I've been talking about for the last 5 to seven minutes and what I'd like to frame up for all of you as one man's point of view of something that has clearly worked for everybody at all levels in the business world over the last 30 years that I've observed is scaling the unscalable. So I want to spend a few minutes on this concept and just put this in your mind: scaling the unscalable. Me driving that Binger White Synel for 2 hours for something that was like $30 for a case was scaling the unscalable. The thing that I really want to talk to some of the field leaders, especially in the stores or even corporate is I can't get over this Mind that if you're really as customer Centric as you like to say you are to the world and I see how you try to position yourself I'd like to challenge everyone here to do more scaling of the unscaled aailable for customers.
So for example, I'm about to tell you a story that is also iconic to me that I think Gopuff can scale 10,000 times better than I did 15 years ago and I think this is for corporate and then I've got one for the field. So for corporate so Twitter came out I was fascinated by it I was like the world's changing, the internet's changing and I was really focused on lifetime value and retention. I'm sure for the people in analytics in this company when you look at all the people that have bought from Gopuff or BevMo but haven't bought from you in 6 months or 12 months, you just look at it like it's all right there. The re the lapsed user is one of the most interesting things in business so I was obsessed with that I was like we have the best you know we were really rolling at Wine Library like we have the best prices, we have the best selection I felt real confident I was like why isn't everybody buying everything from us like I wanted it and so I started thinking about okay we're doing all this internet right but we're not doing like the heavy touch you know the that locks it in So I said to the team I have this idea boarding a plane to Napa ironically I had the idea I called my best friend Brandon who runs the store I said I want don't you to do something I want every order that comes on Wi library.com I want you to Google the person's name and see if you can find them.
obviously some people have John Smith that'll be hard. luckily some people have Gary vaynerchuck and there's only one of them and you can find them. If you find someone who's you really know who the it is, it's that person. Let me know they found someone I said now I want you to go and find them on Twitter Can you find and this was Twitter early so like most people weren't on so I knew it would take a little bit about a week or two later I get a call we got some dude I'm like amazing so he they go we got this dude he he bad news.
This is going to really make the people laugh. Bad news though. we found him but he bought a case of Santa Margarita Peno Graio the shittiest most overpriced wine of all time. Real Talk Super overrated. Kudos to them. It's one of the few wine brands that have built an actual brand so people are buying what is really $4 Pino Brie for 25 bucks. Thank you I Go! That's cool I Go Here's what I want you so I go tell So I'm on the phone with Brandon he goes I found his Twitter I go what's he tweeting? This is where the story gets interested. Every tweet out of this dude's mouth is Jay Cutler I love you So this dude lives in Chicago and he's a huge Bears fan and he's tweeting like now.
We all tweet along with sports all the time but this was early and it's like Jak Cutler why' you throw that pass Jay Cutler don't do that Great job J it's Jay Cutler for the majority of you don't know I'll just say one more time Jay Culler was the quarterback of the Chicago Bears of the time I'm like okay I go Brandon Here's what I want you to do: I want you to go to eBay and I want you to buy a Jay Cutler jersey signed in a frame and send it to him with a note that says thank you for shopping at Wine Library right? It's like bro, that's like 350 bucks. We made like $89 in the whole case of Santa Margarita I Go I know I know I Go. Trust me I Just want to do this. So I'm thinking we're going to send this Jay Cutler fanatic a jersey.
He's going to be blown away and then I'll show Brandon and the team just like my baringer story I'm like look he spent all his money with us over the next two years. Let's do this. I had a whole master plan I'm so pumped I'm like I'm a I'm a genius I'm like yes and then real life hits this. We send this dude this thing we don't hear a peep nothing fa now it's a month, it's two now I'm I like you know when you're like picking a scab like now I'm like just addicted to this I got a million things going on all I give a about is some random dentist in Chicago who I sent to Jay Cutler Jersey to that bought Penino Grio from the most overpriced producer in the world and hasn't said Thank you so I'm dead like for those months I'm like really annoyed about it.
We do some other little things but this one really stuck to me cuz it was so egregious right? like it was so big for what he bought and then one of the most interesting things happen I get a phone call from Brandon again Brandon is currently right now in Wine Library in Springfield New Jersey Not too far from here like I Met him on the first day of high school. so my best friend but also runs my family business. he calls me he's like you're never going to believe this and just by the way he said it. You know when you know somebody for 15 years and you're like I knew it was that I was like the Jay Cutler guy replied he goes, no look at this he goes, just stick with me He goes, let me read this I'm like go ahead so reads some name Plano Texas and he rattles off like a $7,000 red burgundy order right? So just really high-end single Vineyard stuff like just really esoteric small producer Red burgundies Seven G's I'm like okay that's a good order but I'm like but what? What's the punch cuz I knew he wouldn't just call me for now I'm like yo what he goes he goes no no he's like wait for it he goes he goes Now let me read you what's in the note so that's when I knew it would get good I'm like what he goes hey um first of all, you have an amazing burgundy selection. Can I speak to somebody I'm looking for some other stuff. second I live in Texas it's hot as can you please hold it for a while. he goes P.S My best friend lives in Chicago and you sent him a J Cutler Jersey and that's how I found out about your store PSS I'm a huge Bruce Springsteen fan that happened 15 years ago I think about it all the time and I think when I was. you know thinking about this talk I was like what's the move that they can actually do Like coming and giving a talk you only got a limited amount of time and like you could talk about mindset and perspective and I'm touching on different as you can tell but I was like what's the action that this company can actually do that can reinforce so they can taste it of what I'm actually talking about when I analyze from afar the virtual and physical combo of gopuff and BevMo and especially really knowing the business and understanding what's happening in the California Market not obviously you're in other markets as well Liquor Bar These things I Really do believe both for yourselves and for your customers, that 2024 is an incredible opportunity to scale the unscalable.
There's a lot of ways to spend marketing dollars. You can run Facebook ads And Google ads and inapp. there's other ways to spend money. Things that create debt like buying a J Cutler Jersey and sending it to someone you were sitting on on both companies.
Unlimited data, unlimited. All of the magic sits there. We have just gotten into a world where everything is digital and virtual and scalable and AI is coming and it's all. this and all that's happening is we're getting further away from a business era that our grandparents lived in.
I Actually believe the way our grandparents did business is actually the real opportunity of the next decade. It is the people that understand whoever brings the most Humanity wins I Believe that that will matter for the way you frame up how much you care about customers. I Actually believe there's a more important story in here. which is what if you did that to each other.
back to what I asked for for you to consider at lunch. What if you actually went deeper with each other? What if you actually cared like for real, what ends up happening is it's like sports. How many people here with sports? Make Some Noise Actually this is perfect. I'm so pumped right now it just hit me.
My number one example for what I'm about to say happened in Philadelphia I don't remember the year I think it was 2002 3 4 but there was a year that the Eagles anybody an Eagles fan here. Good! So you're going to remember good I See you quick. Remember that super team you guys built like 15 years ago was supposed to be the greatest team of all time. You got the cornerback from the Raiders. it was going to like dominate I was like this is boring. They're going to go 16-0 and win the Super Bowl I don't like the NFL being like this. it's like baseball this is I was and then you guys went like eight and8 missed the playoffs and sucked. That story is how I look.
I've made a lot of money investing and I've lost a lot of money investing and I've built two very successful companies with my hands. and then I also started resi the restaurant app inside of Anner media and I had a direct consumer wine brand called empathy that I sold to consolation. So I've had wins and I've had plenty of losses. The only common thread of the Investments the boards I sit on the only common threat.
There's a million variables of what makes somebody win. Sometimes the CEO she or he is just too talented and they will it to success. Other times there's some random outside factors. people get caught at time.
There's things. but the only Common Thread that I see in the world of making something win is how much the locker room likes each other. That Eagles team was uncomfortably talented. Every dude in that locker room was out for themselves and can give a about their teammate.
That's why they lost so much When I think about the crossroads of the business world we live in today in the consumer lens. when I think about what your compe landscape would look like both on BM Mo and Gopuff in the next decade. The only thing that is clear to me besides the fact from afar I'm getting to know them I think your Founders are really strong. Besides that, what is very obvious to me is the outcome of your financial winnings here, your enjoyment here, and what it sets you up for.
Because the best part is with all respect to the founders everybody. El The best part of winning at Gopuff during this era is what it's sets you up for in seven years. If you win at a company like this during this era, that's real talk that's for your grandchildren. And so there is so much uncomfortable upside in this room.
But I genuinely believe regardless of how talented the top seven 10 15 people are in this company. The most obvious variable of how well that all plays out is how well the thousand people in this room get along. I Really believe that not on some Grandma Sap be fooo woo woo on some I Only care about winning I Love business I've done it my whole life and all I do is Observe and it is the only common threat I've seen and so I ask you as I bounce off this stage to consider that framework because I think the upside is there for you and if you can find a way to be the bigger person, if you, you can find a way to scale the unscalable first for each other and then for your customers I think you win I'd like to see you win because I'm a Jets fan and I don't get to win a lot and so I like to see others win. Um, that's actually not true I want to conest something because I just need to get this off my chest. This feels like a good medium. There was obviously some big football games this. Sunday W For the people that do know actually how many people here do know about me and consume some of my content. Can you clap it up? Thank you! So for those people in this audience you're aware I'm a pretty optimistic positive dude, but there's one version of me that isn't football.
Gary And football Gary is why I understand why people are on tilt around politics and around other cuz it's the only place where I don't have my emotions in check and I'm not proud of who I am and I just want to get this out cuz it's important to get out I just want to confest something this Sunday when the Lions were dominating the 49ers I Thought going into the game that I was rooting for the Lions especially because my brother and I have a sports agency and we rep five Detroit Lions including Aiden Hutchinson So naturally I thought but sports Gary Kicked in at halftime and I realized one of the things I most believe in in the world that I ask all of you to pay attention. There is a lot of sayings in life. The most real one is Misery Loves Company. A lot of people in this room are up right now because they're spending too much time watching the news or their social media feeds, watching people that are trying to Dag drag you down into their unhappiness by selling you.
Fear Misery loves company in real life I Limit misery I limit my relatives and friends who are not happy who are trying to Dag me down I'm there for them but I limit it in football Gary I don't I'm super mad and I hate everybody who's a Patriots fan yeah I hate you so much bro like anyway I don't understand why we don't love each other. we're all just one team. but I do understand cuz I hate that dude I liked him. it's funny how life works I liked him 15 minutes ago cuz I saw that he had a wuang hoodie on I'm like yo I with that dude but then he said he was a Patriots fan anyway I just want to get this off my chest I have to conest it is scary to me how much I wanted the Lions to lose cuz I didn't want another shitty franchise to go to the Super Bowl yeah anyway to end my speech 2024 Don't Be Football Gary Thank you so much Thank you my de thank you so much goop! Have a great year B Mo I Love you.
Whenever you think you've heard it all, bam!!! Gary, you hit us with some new insight and perspective on your story and how others can apply your insights to their processes! Well done!!!!
Currently looking for a mentor in business. We are a very small motorsports merch company and need some guidance. Thank you in advance. Blessings to everyone!
great video and stories
thank you so much
I make t shirt designs/artwork on break/lunch time💰💰💰🇺🇲
It’s crazy to think 8% of the year has already passed. Gotta keep moving and growing!
Great video Gary! You always give us the best info!
Anyone still believe this guy?! Dude lost not only his voice but all credibility after pushing those NFT scams. 😢
Great person!!!!! ❤❤
You are born to be a legend brother. Thank you for all you do for us, and the great information you provide is beyond amazing. I am lucky witnessing your greatest moments. ❤❤🤜👊🤛🙏✌️
I pray that everyone who watches this video have an abundance of success this year.
Me the first to write watching this!😁